


Hopefully wholesome hours

by Ozeddie



Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self-Aware
Genre: Other, Wholesome, sad then happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24875374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ozeddie/pseuds/Ozeddie
Summary: The first chapter is Tommy babysitting Joshua for Gordon. The second is the science team having a movie night at Gordon’s place.
Relationships: Boomer - Relationship, Bubby & Dr. Coomer (Half-Life), Possible Freelatta, Possible Tommy/Gordon
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey. This is short. Hope it’s good, if you have any suggestions please tell me. :))

Tommy sat at the brightly coloured table that was much too small for him, he was on the floor, cross-legged. A very small boy in a very small chair was next to Tommy. That very small boy was Joshua, Gordon’s son. Gordon has asked Tommy to take care of the boy while Gordon did some errands.  
The bright sun shined through the window of the living room, giving the room a soft glow. Gordon hadn’t had a chance to clean so dust sparkled in the light, like little specks of fairy dust. Joshua liked to run his hand through it and make the dust move.  
The two were watching shrek, Joshy loved it. Joshua’s favourite character was donkey, played by Eddie Murphy. He was Tommy’s favourite too. Tommy looked down to see what Joshy was drawing. Crayons were strewn about in a very colourful mess. The boy had drawn a little grey crayon blob (probably donkey), and a big red and pink blob, (probably dragon). Tommy patted Joshua’s head as he stood up.  
“That looks great, bud!” He said. Joshua didn’t respond but he did smile brightly at Tommy, before he went back to enthusiastically scribbling.  
Tommy walked by a sleeping Sunkist and patted the golden dog’s head. The dog leaned into the touch, and when they opened their eyes, Tommy looked at them.  
“Can you watch Joshy for me, please?” The dog blinked and walked over the the young boy, watching him draw.  
“Good doggie, Sunkist.” The man called back before getting to the kitchen. Tommy didn’t know what to make. What do children eat? Five years old, he wouldn’t be drinking milk anymore right? Tommy looked in the fridge. He didn’t want to cook any ingredients without asking Gordon, he might be planning something with them. Didn’t Gordon say something about lunch? Tommy opened the freezer and remembered. Gordon said to heat up some pizza pops for lunch. The man grabbed the box and some plates, he started cooking the pizza pops. After all the pizza pops were done he came back to the living room where Joshy and Sunkist were now playing.  
Tommy set the pizza pops down on the table, brushing away the crayons. Joshua instantly came running when he saw it.  
“Food!” He yelled, dropping the ball he’d intended to throw for Sunkist.  
They sat there and ate, but then Tommy realized what part of the movie they were on. Shrek and Fiona were fighting, Tommy didn’t remember this part, he turned to see if Joshua was ok and- Joshua almost looked like he was gonna cry. He turned to Tommy.  
“T-they’re not gonna keep fighting right? They’re gonna stay together right?” Tommy pulled the boy closer to him and started rubbing his back. Joshua hugged Tommy, and buried his face in the man’s shirt.  
“They’re just having a small argument, Joshie. They’ll be alright. They’ll stay together, they’ll end up together, because they’re happy together.” Tommy did his best to reassure the child.  
“Why didn’t mommy and daddy stay together then? They never stopped fighting. B-but they were h-happy weren’t they? That’s why they had me. Am I why they’re not happy together?” The boy was crying now.  
“No. No, they weren’t happy together because they weren’t meant for eachother. They made a mistake, but you know what wasn’t a mistake, Joshua? You. And you make both of them very happy, ok Joshie? You are the reason they’re happy” Tommy tried his best to calm the boy down, and he was doing his best, but he couldn’t help but almost start crying too. His throat felt tight and it was hard to get the words out. He sat there with the boy until they both calmed down. Joshua didn’t really know what to do, but he wanted to thank Tommy, for being so nice to him, and for making him feel better, so he gave Tommy as tight of a hug as he could. Then Joshua stepped away.  
“Can we take Sunkist for a “W. A. L. K”?” the boy was careful not to say the word, lest Tommy’s answer be no.  
“Of course we can!” Tommy smiled and so they got ready to go for a walk.


	2. Uhhh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordon gets back. They all watch movies. Lots of cuddles.

When Tommy, Joshie, and Sunkist had gotten back from their walk Gordon was already home. He’d obviously just gotten there, as his groceries were still in bags, on the floor. Most of it was normal groceries, but Joshua didn’t fail to notice the candy and popcorn, and Tommy didn’t miss the large amount of soda.  
“Dad!” Joshua put his hands in the air and ran up to hug his father.   
“Hey, Joshie.” Gordon ruffled the boy’s hair, and went back to putting groceries away. “Mind cleaning up the living room for me? Some of my friends are going to come over.” And Josh was already in the living room, tidying up. He was doing his best, but it still looked like a mess, he was a very small child after all. Tommy went into the living room to tidy what the boy couldn’t.  
When Gordon was done, he turned to see a struggling Joshua, carrying a stack of dirty plates. A dog with a feather duster, and a man with a vacuum behind him. Josh put the stack on the counter and pushed it further, to the middle of the counter. Gordon quickly started doing said dishes.  
“Thanks, sport” he said to his son. Who quickly made a motion that meant he wanted to sit on the counter, his arms outstretched , and hands making a grabbing motion. Gordon picked the boy up and set him on the countertop, then turned back to the dishes.   
“Tell me about your day.” Gordon said. He’d not had the best day, and he really needed to hear his son talk right now. His experiences at Black Mesa had made him a bit of a nervous wreck, he had a panic attack at Walmart. The man locked himself in the store bathroom for about an hour before he got himself under control. The telecom reminded him of the one at Black Mesa, and a simple “clean-up on isle five” set off something horrible in his mind. He was glad he’d get to see the rest of the science team later, though. And he finally got to spend time with his son.  
When he was stuck at Black Mesa he tried not to think of Joshua, the thought of his boy, missing his father, made him feel too bad. But now that he was out, he realized just how much he missed Joshua, and he wasn’t going to waste a single second he could spend with the boy.   
Gordon listened to the child ramble, mostly about little things. The pizza-pops Tommy had made, the homework he had to do, the frog they had seen on their walk, but then Josh mentioned something else.  
“We watched a movie, about an ogre, called Shrek! He, uuuhh, he had a girlfriend. She had red hair. They had a fight. Like you and mommy used to.” the boy’s loud and fast speech pattern had suddenly slowed down, and he looked at his feet. “But not like you and mommy used to. They stayed together.”   
“...” Gordon looked at his son. He didn’t know what to say. He felt so guilty now-  
“But there was also this talking donkey! I don’t remember his name. But he had a girlfriend too, she was a dragon!” The boy suddenly spoke up, a large grin spread on his face. Gordon let him keep talking, he seemed happy again. Gordon didn’t want to make him upset again. But still, he’d have to talk to Joshie about this in the future. Gordon knew the divorce bothered his son. But he had no idea it affected him this much.

The first guests to arrive (aside from Tommy and Sunkist of course) were Bubby and Coomer. Benrey was the only one left, now. They arrived arm-in-arm, and while Coomer excitedly Greeted Gordon, Bubby looked around the small apartment. A judgmental expression on his face. While Coomer and Tommy had already been to Gordon’s apartment, this would be the first time Bubby and Benrey had seen it. It would also be the first time the two would meet Joshua.   
Joshua and Sunkist ran to the front door. He was excited to see the nice man he’d seen before, he thought his name was Mr. Coomer, but he couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that man was his dad’s friend,he gave the boy candy when they’d met, and he might give him more.   
He was also excited to meet the other man. Meeting new people was scary, but exciting to the young boy. If Josh had to guess, he’d say the man was probably the fiancé Joshua heard Mr. Coomer mention to Gordon.   
The boy stopped in front of the two elderly men, the dog behind him sat down. Dr. Coomer leaned down to talk to the boy.  
“Do you remember me?” The boy enthusiastically nodded his small head. “Well guess what I brought for you!” Coomer said, pulling a loli-pop out of his pocket. The boy took it right out of the man’s hand and quickly unwrapped it. His father nudged him.   
“Say thanks to Mr. Coomer” he said with a calm smile.  
“Thank you!” The boy said, not bothering to take the sucker out of his mouth. Coomer smiled all the same, and stood up.  
Bubby held out his hand, “My name is Bubby” the boy was put-off when he noticed the man’s sharp teeth, but shook his hand. The man smiled to him, but didn’t say much. It seemed like he didn’t know how to make conversation with him. Joshua was ok with that, though he had no idea that part of Bubby’s problem was that he’d seen very few children before. Having lived his entire life in Black Mesa, raised in a tube.. He was with Mr. Coomer, so he can’t be that mean or scary, Joshua had thought.  
The two old men sat in the living room, and as soon as they did there was another knock at the door. It was like clockwork.   
Gordon went to open the door. A man Josh didn’t know walked through, Josh instantly was wary of him though. The boy didn’t exactly know why, maybe it was the shadow across the top of his face. This man called his dad a strange name, “Feetman”. His father ignored this, and brought this man to Tommy.  
Gordon was scared Benrey wouldn’t be the best with kids, that he’d say something horrible, he’d been told not too, but Benrey hasn’t exactly displayed an affinity for listening to Gordon.   
Benrey leaned down, his hands on his knees.  
“So you like video games?” And then they clicked. The two spent the rest of the night talking about various things. Mostly video games and cartoons, but Joshua also ended up showing Benrey his drawings. This surprised Gordon, Josh was always protective of his art, and very selective of who he showed. Benrey complimented each one, and Joshua was beaming happy.

They had all agreed on a few movies. Right now they were watching Ferris Bueller’s day off. The third movie of the night, snacks and sodas depleted almost as quickly as they had been set down. Benrey was on the floor, cuddling with the dog. Joshua had started falling asleep earlier, so Gordon picked him up, and tucked him into bed. Coomer and Bubby have fallen asleep cuddling on the other couch. Now Gordon and Tommy were the only ones left awake.   
Gordon turned to Tommy. A serious look on his face.  
“So, when you guys watched shrek, did he say anything about me and his mother?” Tommy looked down. He nodded.  
“He said you guys used to fight a lot” Gordon looked sad, and felt sadder. He felt guilty. He felt guilty for forcing a relationship, a situation that negatively affected his son, but at the same time he felt guilty for leaving her. For denying his son a normal childhood. Tommy saw Gordon mentally spiraling. He put his hand on the man’s shoulder.  
“You did your best, Gordon. You did what was right. For you, your son, and your ex.” God Gordon hoped that was true. Tommy looked Gordon in the eyes, seeing if what he was doing was working in making Gordon feel better. It was working.  
“I think kids often doubt themselves when it comes to their parents’ relationships. I can’t really say, considering I was an Orphan for a large chunk of my childhood, and my father was never really the relationship type” Tommy was speaking from the heart, now.  
“You just gotta reassure him. Be honest with him.” Gordon put his hand on the speaking man’s arm, and thanked him. He’d definitely take his advice.  
“You know, Tommy, you’ll be a great father.”  
“You really think so?” Tommy sounded excited at the thought.  
“Yeah, I do” and as the two fell asleep, they didn’t even realize they were still holding eachother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. :))

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :))


End file.
